House of Making

Ariake is a furniture brand founded by Legnatec and Hirata Chair, two furniture factories from Morodomi in Saga prefecture, Japan. Named after the nearby Ariake Sea, Ariake also means ‘daybreak’ in Japanese. The collaboration started in 2016 when the owner of Legnatec, Takehiro Kabashima and the owner of Hirata Chair, Shoji Hirata, met Singapore/Porto based furniture designer and creative director Gabriel Tan with an ambition to export their furniture to the world. A long term vision was established and with the involvement of Zurich-based graphic design studio Anner Perrin and Swiss-Finnish photographer Sebastian Stadler, the Ariake brand was born. Gabriel Tan invited Japanese designers Keiji Ashizawa and Shin Azumi, Nordic designers Staffan Holm, Anderssen & Voll, Norm Architects and Note Design Studio, as well as Canadian designer Zoë Mowat, Brazilian Architect Marcio Kogan and Portuguese designer Rui Alves to design the first three collections for the brand.